6 - Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
6- Tuesday, September 30, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
0
Tom Petty meets
Tony Soprano
"You guys on MySpace?"
'Nine-Nine' starts
sophomore season
FOX comedy
continues to thrive
off its ensemble
By DREW MARON
DalyArts Writer
"BrooklynNine-Nine"returned
in "O-some" fashion this week,
and as expected, the sophomore'
comedy still
rules. Like their A
other comedic
masterwork, Brooklyn
"Parks and Nine-Nine
Recreation,"
Dan Goor and Smson two
Michael Schur premiere
bring every Sundays at
character to a
level where any 8:30 p.m.
one of them can FOX
be your favorite.
Andy Samberg ("Saturday Night
Live") continues to shine as Jake
Peralta, showcasing enough
goofiness while remaining as
competent as you'd expect a New
York City Detective to be. And like
"Parks" 's Leslie Knope, Peralta
might be a fool, but when there's
a job to, do;he, can always be
counted on.
The season two premiere,
"Undercover," featured so many
strong lines and moments from
the whole cast, including Terry
Jeffords (Terry Crews, "The
Expendables") and Captain
Holt (Andre Braugher, "Men
of A Certain Age") performing
constant drills involving the
6'2" Jeffords masquerading as a
confused old person, a seven-year-
old boy named Timmy and a piece
of "ticking" unattended luggage.
Braugher, Emmy-nominated
for his role, continues to kill it
as Captain Holt and his back-
and-forth banter with Santiago
(Melissa Fumero, "Gossip Girl"),
Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz, "Modern
Family") and Jeffords in the
premiere is priceless.
Two of the biggest scene-
stealers of the show are Gina
Linetti (Chelsea Peretti, "Kroll
Show") and Charles Boyle (Joe Lo
Truglio, "Superbad"). Each had
their moments ofhilarity following
the harrowing (for Gina), life-
affirming (for Charles) event of
theirsleepingtogether.For Charles,
it meant a newfound confidence
in helping Jake track down an
escaped Mafioso. His insistence
on the sunhat - because that's
what he thinks a Mafioso would
wear - and his "tough guy" line,
"There's more where that came
from. I got areal-wet mouth,"all
assure Lo Truglio's Boyle to be
one of the most frequently cited
fan-favorites.
But the breakout star of the
series is Peretti's Gina. Following
her flingwith Boyle, Linetti'susual
swagger is diminished, donning
a black sweatshirt with her new
"spirit animal," the naked mole
rat, "God's disgusting mistake."
When Santiago disses the shirt,
Linetti snaps back, "Hey! Only I
get to talk about my spirit animal
that way,you don't getto say that."
But it's the delivery and Peretti's
performance - confident, self-
deprecating, deadpan and always
hysterical - that really sells the
humor.
This episode also featured
"Parks and Rec" alum Jenny Slate,
guest starring as a mafia girlfriend
whom Peralta must outwit. Given
Schur and Goor's strength in
making memorable recurring
characters, one really has to hope
that Slate and many other former
residents of Pawnee, Indiana
might also soon find themselves
at home at the 99th precinct in the
form of guest roles. (Also, please
give us a crossover episode of
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "Parks
and Rec." The world will be a
better place.)
It's only the beginning of the
second season, and it's tough to
say with any certainty, but if the
jokes keeplandinglike they have
and the characters continue to
be as lovable as they are, it looks
like "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" might
indeedbe the next great television
comedy.
want to talk about the
greatest use of music in
a TV show that I have.
ever seen - season six, episode
two of "The Sopranos." Carmela
Soprano (Edie-
Falco) puts
on "American
Girl," the
'70s Classic
Rock Radio
staple by Tom
Petty and the
Heartbreak- ADAM
ers, for her THEISEN
husband
Tony, who's in
a coma after being shot.
Even if you know nothing
about the show, I think you can be
touched by watching this scene.
Falco's performance - talking
and reminiscing and working
through nostalgiathen intense
desperation then guilt and bar-
gaining while her normally fear-
some, hulking husband lies inert
with an enormous breathing tube
sticking out of his mouth - is
astounding, and when those tears
come at the end, I'm absolutely
crushed by all of her emotions. In
a series with a plethora of consis-
tently incredible moments, this,
to me, beats all the rest.
While I want to take nothing
away from Falco's, it's Tom Petty
who makes this moment. Before
I watched this scene, I thought
"American Girl" was exceed-
ingly lame, that it should sit on a
shelf gathering dust with "Slow
Ride" and "Life in the Fast Lane"
and all those other "classics"
that I guess were pretty good at
the time they were releasedbut
should probably be forgotten now.
But in this episode, the second
Carmela started playing it out
of that little radio, I knew some-
thing special was coming.
It starts innocuously, and
you're familiar enough with the
song's verses that you almost
think.ie's.goi go jasthoe back-
ground music for this grand emo-
tional scene. But no, as Carmela
starts talking about their trip to
the beach, her memories and my
memories intermingle. I think
about going to the beach with my
cousins and hearing Songs About
Jane or Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."
And then I think about a scene
earlier in the show's run where
Carmela finds out Tony is cheat-
ing and they get into one of the
most terrifying TV arguments
I've ever seen. Or I remember
seeing Tom Petty perform this
song at the Super Bowl Halftime
Show, and then for.some reason.
this random memory of playing
Tony Hawk Pro Skater while "I
Won't Back Down" plays. Now
Carmelaand Tony are in a pool
together last season, as Carm
reluctantly realizes that she'll
never be able to get Tony out of
her life. And then I think about
my friend's lakehouse this sum-
mer, and hearing Petty's hits
being blasted from someone's
boat on the 5th of July and we're
sitting on the deck while the sun
beats down and the wind messes
up our hair. I see Carmela in the
hospital and hear classic rock and
I remember the hospital the last
time I saw my auntbefore cancer
took her while I hear her sing
Fleetwood Mac years earlier as
we play Rock Band at my house.
I want to buy into the idea that,
as fucked up as Tony and Carm's
relationship is, Tom Petty can fix
it. At its core, "American Girl" is
such a simple, lovable song. The
drum beat bounces and makes
you smile, the familiar rock struc-
ture immediately comforts and
the lyrics evoke images of per-
fectly picturesque suburban cities
where teenagers get together on
weekends to courageously flirt
with their crushes and discover
new romantic feelings that lead to,
fondly remembered embarrass-
ments. I want Carmela and Tony
to rediscover their young love just
as badly as I want Carm to just for
the love of God get out and never
talk to him again. Her words of
encouragement, her compliments
ring hollow but still I believe and
accept them.
Then the songclimaxes just
as.Carmela's love, exhaustion
and despair hit their peak. Her
voice cracks, saying "You're
coming back here," just as the
guitar soars and the wordless
backing vocals crescendo. You're
overwhelmed with everything
at once. Her tears escape and I
think about visiting relatives in
the hospital and abusive relation-
ships and all the pressures of try-
ing to be an adult but at the same
time Tom Petty's songsurprises
me with how amazing it actually
is and I hope that maybe, despite
everything, all thatshit willwork
out in the end.
The emotional power of song
is the closest thing we have to a
time machine. That's part of why
I love music. Geniuses and nov-
elty acts alike bring backthe past.
In our memories, "Summer Girls"
can be as exalted as "Mr. Tam-
bourine Man," and Toto's "Afri-
ca" can occupy the same space
as "Big Poppa." Whenever I turn
on the radio I can'be suddenly
bombarded with old fragments of
my life; when browsing through
my iPod I unconsciously have the
ability to pull back long-forgotten
times - good and bad.
The endless tree of associa-
tions that we have with music
connects us, comforts us and
fills us with more than we can
handle. And though I'm not
always thinking about all of this
when "American Girl" comes
on the radio and I use it for
pure escapism, rolling down
the windows and singing along
because I've come around to the
fact that it's a blissfully fantastic
rock song, there will also always
be those strangely wonderful
nights where it feels like every
song that comes up on shuffle has
several random half-lost moments
attached to it and I can't help but
reminisce on the people, places
and emotions the music'inspires.
Theisen is feeling sad and
nostalgic. To console him,
e-mail ajtheis@umich.edu. '
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossw
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols L
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Potential in CBS plot
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litor@aol.com 09/30/14
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SERVICES
'Scorpion'
often ridiculous,
occasionally good
By DREW MARON
DailyArts Writer
We open on a tiny house in Ire-
land and a quaint little couple sur-
prised by three helicopters filled
with armed
soldiers. They
violently break
into the house Scorpion
and subdue the Pot
screaming hus-
band and wife. CBS
"Where is he?!"
They bark.
They make their way upstairs,
breaking into a room with their
presumed target and aim their
weapons. We then see who it
is - a small child. He claims
to have just broken into NASA.
Your response to this scene will
determine your appreciation of
"Scorpion." Years later, the little
boy is one of the five smartest
people on the planet and an ace
computer hacker named Walter
O'Brien (Elyes Gabel, "Game of
Thrones").
The opening is ridiculous and
the rest of the show isn't far off
either. If you don't have a prob-
lem with a genius hacker driv-
ing a Lamborghini 200 miles
per hour down a runway over-
a doomed plane while Katha-
rine McPhee stands through the
sunroof with a laptop connected
from the car on the ground to the
still airborne plane's computer
system, you will have a blast with
"Scorpion." If you like fast cars,
great chases, some funny char-
acter moments and not a lot of
sense, again you will like "Scor-
pion." If you were hoping this
would be director Justin Lin's big
demo reel for "True Detective"
season two ... you'll probably be
excited to find that Lin does end
up shooting the crap out of it. Lin
is known for his contributions
to the "Fast and Furious" fran-
chise and especially for making
it the awesome, globe-trotting,
over-the-top ensemble epic it's
evolved into. He's also directed
some excellent TV in recent
years including the paint-ball
episode of "Community," "Mod-
ern Warfare."
The cast is decent, and has
some definite potential, nota-
bly newcomers Ari Stidham as
"human calculator" Sylvester
Dodd and Jadyn Wong as genius
engineer Happy Quinn. For now,
the cast works and little details
like Dodd not talking to his par- I
ents in 10 years provides much-
needed pathos to some of the
more chaotic elements of the
pilot. At times, though, it does
seem like lazy writing could turn
them all into action-team stereo-
types. The pilot puts the show
in the same boat as "Fringe"
and "Agents of SHIELD" were
when they started - it could
either progress in quality or fall
aside into mediocrity. Hopeful-
ly, writer Nick Santora and his
team have enough passion for the
characters and story to let it meet
its full potential.
"Scorpion" has a lot going for
it and honestly isn't deserving of
some its more negative criticism.
The pilot might not be spectacu-
lar, but the fundamental ideas at
its core show at least some sem-
blance of potential. It's crucial
that it's a series where characters
like Sherlock Holmes and Mark
Zuckerberg truly thrive: not only
on an active runway driving 200
miles per hour, but in the infi-
nite head-space of the supposed
geniuses at its center.
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bobsled team
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71 Ties the knot
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Armstrong
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09/30/14
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